{"id":43813,"date":"2021-05-03T14:47:24","date_gmt":"2021-05-03T18:47:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/?p=43813"},"modified":"2021-09-01T14:14:00","modified_gmt":"2021-09-01T18:14:00","slug":"ems-holds-first-of-its-kind-covid-save-jr-sr-banquet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/2021\/05\/ems-holds-first-of-its-kind-covid-save-jr-sr-banquet\/","title":{"rendered":"First of a Kind Jr\/Sr Banquet Brings Something Nearly Normal"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Sunny Slope Farm<\/a> provided a stunning backdrop for this year\u2019s COVID-safe Junior-Senior Banquet, one of the first nearly \u201cnormal\u201d activities for upper classmen this academic year.<\/p>\n

Last year \u2014 during the spring 2020 pandemic shut down \u2014 was the first time in decades EMHS didn\u2019t have a banquet planned and hosted by the junior class in a transformed dining hall, followed by a party hosted by senior parents in another venue, often also with elaborate d\u00e9cor.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year\u2019s banquet brought a lot of change. A big one was having the formal meal and after party together in one location,\u201d said Justin King, high school principal, who oversaw the process, particularly the COVID protocol in consultation with area professionals.<\/p>\n

Senior class sponsors Shannon Roth and Jodi Hertzler collaborated on the event, along with a host of parents. \u201cIt came together really well, the students seemed to have fun, and we were so happy to provide a memorable experience for them,\u201d said Roth.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just thrilled that we were able to land this beautiful venue, and make such an important event happen this year to celebrate our students,\u201d said King. \u201cThey have had an incredibly stressful and unusual year, and we wanted to do everything we could to recognize and honor them.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s event began with a \u201creverse parade\u201d in the dining hall parking lot with seniors standing by their vehicles for parents and friends to drive through and honk, wave and photograph. This replaced the tradition of students arriving in creative ways to walk into the venue for all to see. \u00a0\u201cI just want to thank the senior sponsors, faculty and staff, and especially the senior parents who stepped up and helped plan an amazing event in less than two months. Our community is such a special place, and it really rallied around our juniors and seniors to make the event possible. I can\u2019t be more appreciative to our parent community for their help.\u201d<\/p>\n

The program theme was \u201cA night at the\u00a0 movies.\u201d Junior emcees called each senior forward on the red carpet for a formal portrait and acknowledgement after the meal, along with some questions, witty banter and inside jokes.<\/p>\n

After the program,\u00a0 students changed out of formalwear for games outdoors or to dance off their stressful year to tunes hosted by DJ Nathan May \u201901. Masks were required when students mingled away from their tables, but didn\u2019t get in the way of the fun.<\/p>\n

\u201d It was tons of fun and the most normal I have felt all year,\u201d said Maggie Fairfield \u201921. \u201cWe finally got to celebrate us and just have fun. While there were still regulations of course to protect us we still got to eat, dance, and play together. The planners did such a great job and I\u2019m so happy we all got to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Venue photos by Tiffany Showalter Photography<\/a>. Parade photos by Andrew Gascho.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Sunny Slope Farm provided a stunning backdrop for this year\u2019s COVID-safe Junior-Senior Banquet, one of the first nearly \u201cnormal\u201d activities for upper classmen this academic year. Last year \u2014 during the spring 2020 pandemic shut down \u2014 was the first time in decades EMHS didn\u2019t have a banquet planned and hosted by the junior\u2026<\/p>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":43830,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[80],"tags":[133,69],"class_list":["post-43813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-emhs","tag-high-school"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43813\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43813"}],"curies":[{"name":"gracias","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}